$1/2 do I play bad?
Date: Sat, Feb 23, 2008
Worst day $$$ at poker today since I started playing a few years ago. That kind of tilts me. Sick of these swings. Last 3 days I've played I've finished down $700, then up $700 and today down $870. Pissed off.
I'm still up a decent amount for the month (mainly due to RB), but I'm only beating 1/2 for a gay 1PTBB/100 over the 16k hands I've played. I'm disappointed with that, I guess it's not that big a sample, I dunno. I just expect more. Maybe I'm looking at things wrong, or being too results oriented, or expecting too much. But I'm just disappointed that I've put a lot of work in this month and don't have as much as I'd like to show for it.
I'm not sure if the way I play I should be earning morning and I'm just running bad... or if I'm not playing well enough at this limit. I feel like I'm playing well, but postflop I still have some things to work on. I often experiment with different lines and make different plays just to see what happens, I occasionally stack off when i shouldn't... but I think I always learn from it, and it's rarely ever from tilt.
My table selection is really good right now, but I'm going to study Verneers article and new video to improve it still. My multi-tabling game feels pretty good. I'm feeling comfortable playing 6 tables at a time while still developing reads on players, using hud stats, etc. Maybe trying to put a set amount of volume in today messed with my game or something.
Bleh, I'm gonna go read a bunch of peoples blogs to re-enforce that everyone has swings, and mine are pretty tiny in comparison.
EDIT: Just looked at my PT stats for today. 2,200 hands playing 19/16. 22 WTSD%, 52 W$atSD% is losing 4.5 buy-ins even possible with those stats? lol fffsss
Back to the tables
Date: Thu, Feb 21, 2008
Played a short 6-tabling session tonight. I figured the best way to respond to the little downswing I had was to CRUSH... HARD. :)
Won all of the money back from the shitty session a couple of nights back, and this 10k hands is now back on track!
Taking last night off from poker was cool, reckon I needed a break from the tables to relax. Played a bunch of pool with my Dad and bro after work today too which was fun.
I often find myself getting immersed in poker, this usually happens if I've been playing a lot of volume or I'm on a downswing. I actually like having work the morning after taking a hit at the poker tables, it really seems to put poker in perspective for me. When I wake up the morning after a bad session my mind immediately reminds me of the loss, however when I get into work it's easier to step back and look at the big picture. I can see that how I'm running at the tables really isn't that important... and therefor it shouldn't affect my mood.
Dealing with downswings
I've been reading CTS's old blog a lot recently. It's clear that 4-5 buy-in downswings are going to be really common at the mid-limits... so I'm gonna have to get used to it. It's reassuring to see that as good a player as him regularly dropping 7-8 buy-ins in a session and shrugging it off. I need to be less hard on myself when I have a bad session, and just look over the hands and where the mistakes were. Whether it was in the hands, or if it was tilt, or if I was just running bad. Whatever the reason for the bad session though I shouldn't be beating myself up about it, because it's going to happen... frequently. On with the "not caring about money" conditioning. :)
Did quite a lot of hand analysis over the past couple of days, had a backlog of like 25 of my hands logged on weaktight to get through. Been trying to give Martyn some feedback on a few of his hands too. Also halfway through writing a wee article on grinding and playing sessions, just a few thoughts from a couple of articles/book I've been reading recently... will post it over the weekend.
Oh aye, before I forget, I made a $200nl 4-tabling video a few nights back. I think it's pretty good, had good feedback for it so far. Used it to review a session with Messiah last week in coaching, but I don't mind sharing it if anyone would like to watch. If you'd like the download link for it just drop me a mail. I'm not making the video public as I'd like to keep my screenname/etc as private as possible at my current site. Cheers.
Start of next 10k...
Date: Tue, Feb 19, 2008
Down 3 buy-ins in Sklansky all-in luck in the first hour of tonights session = quit + beer + kicking tramps. Wish I had just been lazy and watched the 2nd half of the Liverpool game...
Gonna take a night off tomorrow, going out for some drinking + latenight tenpin.
$1/2 so far
Date: Thu, Feb 14, 2008
10k hands in at the halfway point of the month, so on track for my target. Over the first 10k hands my objective was really just to settle in and I can work my game up from that.
I started out over the first 5k hands playing way too tight, kinda scared play... $200nl is a LOT more aggro then $100nl, it took me a little while and a couple of coaching sessions to adjust to this. Because it's more aggro I've been getting in more tough spots postflop in 3-bet and raised pots... made a ton of mistakes over the first 5k, lost a lot of buy-ins just not knowing what to do in certain situtations. With the help of Messiah I've moved my game up a notch and I'm not a lot more comfortable with tough spots postflop. I'm analysing situations much better and I know a lot more standard lines in 3-bet/4-bet pots.
My postflop aggression is much more selective now (over the last 5k hands). Due to the poor first 5k hands my winrate here isn't that great, I picked it up a lot in the 2nd 5k. Overall I survived at the level over the first 10k and didn't have to move back down, which is success! Now that I've developed self confidence in my ability to beat $1/2 I can focus on making adjustments to my game and plugging leaks. Hopefully I'll see my winrate increase over the next 10k hands.
So I'm playing about 21/18 now, which I'm happy with, kind of where I want to be preflop wise. My positional stats are pretty much where I want to be too...
There are a few issues I need to address for the next 10k...
I like to play 5-6 tables at once and at the times I play there are often only 3-4 good games on the go at 200 on iPoker. So I've got a high RB account at Prima (I'm now setup as an affiliate, so PM me if you'd like an account) and I'll be playing simultaneously at Prima/iPoker to improve the quality of the tables I'm on.
Gonna try moving to a video review style with Dave as our last session wasn't that useful due to there not being much action. Dave's a great help going over tough hands on SkyPE, I think this improves my game a LOT. Gonna continue logging my tough hands on weaktight and going over them with him a couple of times per week.
Finished reading the fantastic Elements of Poker by Tommy Angelo. It's one of the best poker books I've ever read, I'd recommend it to anyone that's serious about the game. It's really improved my attitude towards the game, winning, losing, and tightening up my discipline. It's really light and easy to read too, the writing style is really different and accessible. Going to start reading the Full Tilt Pros poker guide book next to brush up a little for the big tourney at the end of the month.
Dave's recently reworked my PAHud setup, adding some new stats to my hud that I've not used before. I'm not really using these to their full potential at the moment, so I'm going to spend a fair bit of the month looking at interpreting opponent PAHud stats and looking at how to use them in various situations. Will maybe write a couple of posts on this... I've found good way to learn when to 3-bet/4-bet light and when to float recently based on opponent stats.
Not really watching too many CR videos at the moment. Will try to find some time to fit some of those in. Also Dave sent me a big word doc file he's compiled which contains all sorts of gold, need to get through that.
SIKTILT
Date: Sun, Feb 10, 2008
Great site run by a bunch of poker players from Edinburgh. Some real funny vids, the pro interviews are pretty awesome too, GP/Aba ones in particular.
The full Rury vs. Annette video is genius. :)
"I don't really have a game-plan for today. It's basically going to be turn up and crush." lol
1k day
Date: Sat, Feb 9, 2008
It's like the poker gods let me run good for a day. Thankyoooooou! I cleared $1,000 in profits over the last 24 hours, which i'm pretty damn happy about. :)
I played in the OP freezeout today and - despite having a brutal hangover - came 2nd for £270. 3 cashes in my last 3 live tourneys... really feeling on top of my game for the GBPT at the end of the month. Came home, 6-tabled 1000 hands of 200nl when the games were soft between 11pm and 2am. Ran good and finished just under 3 buy-ins up.
So pretty much played 12 hours of poker today. Feels good to win like 1/6th of my bankroll in a day... Ship it.
End of brag post. :)
7k hands played so far this month.